Planar Waveguide Amplifiers

Over the past few years, due to the great development of optical communications, an increasing R&D activity has been focused on the design and manufacture of the integrated optic amplifiers, with particular reference to their application in wavelength-division-multiplexing (WDM) systems. In this technological context, rare-earth-doped oxide glasses, which had been widely used for solid state lasers, gained much attention as highly performing materials in the third telecom window, around 1.5 micron. The aim of the present paper is to provide a brief overview of the progress made, with particular reference to the authors' work in this area, and to shortly discuss its perspectives.